Mahabharat Review

What is it all about?

The greatest epic on earth gets a new revelation in this CGI motion capture experiment funded by Pen India Pvt. Ltd. This first timer Amaan Khan directed venture in its `dharma' does this incredible `karma' - transcends the quality by getting almost half of b-town A-list like Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff,Ajay Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepti Naval ,Madhuri Dixit,Vidya Balan, and Anupam Kher to cast their voice for this greatest mythological epic but somehow this animated `bharm' (read illusion) doesn,t gets it dutifully that right as per the set animation standards in such genre worldwide. We hear it right but we don,t see it that right.

The Story

Amaan Khan in his screenplay designs it for kids and starts with two brothers quarrelling for a coin and tells this greatest epic which has being the source of inspiration for many stories.

Yudhisthir the eldest of the five brother Pandavs is the rightful heir to the crown of Hastinapur but Duryodhan the eldest of one hundred brother Kauravs is against this. Dhuryodhan's jealousy and Draupadi Pandav's wife proud leads to the biggest battle between right and wrong where brothers and families are seen pitted against each other. Lord Krishna is with Pandav who are on the right side and dharma.

What to look out for

Mahabharat - which can make any greatest drama of the world shed teddy bear tears in front of it for its take on duty, responsibility, value, virtues and brotherhood anytime has seen a revolution on small screen in 1988 by B.R. Chopra.

In 1966 Dara Singh starrer Mahabharat produced by Babubhai Mistry saw success the movie also starred Pradeep Kumar, Padmini and Abhi Bhatacharya.

Its 2014 avatar in CGI motion capture experiment is still welcome for its relevance for those who are still naive on the fundamentals of human `Karma' and `Dharma' (read duty and responsibility), brotherhood, family values, virtues, friendship, pride, proud, greed, jealousy, favoritism, lust, right and wrong.

The CGI motion capture experiment is welcome and the contribution by B-town superstars is tremendous. The choices are perfect Big B leads as Bheeshma. He has ruled and echoed our ears with his deep baritone voice for decades and continues over here.

The same dedication is found amongst others where Ajay Devgn as Arjun is wonderfull, Manoj Bajpayee as Yudhisthir is perfect, Sunny Deol as Bheem (who else), Anil Kapoor as Karan is brilliant, Jackie Shroff as Duryodhana is very good, Anupam Kher as Shakuni is menacing, Vidya Balan as Draupadi is excellent, last but not the least Shatrughan Sinha as Lord Krishna is fantastic.

To see them together on screen is next to impossible but at least you can hear them in their full earnestness transcending this epic on screen for a decent watch.

What not

You heard it right. We just cannot see it properly. The voice over's are superb but this attempt is let down by its inconsistent CGI motion capture which is sometimes good sometimes below mark.

Conclusion: Mahabharat is fascinating to the ear but somewhat not designed and animated properly for your eyes. Thanks to the transcending by the b-town A-list through their voice which makes it a fair and decent attempt in the end.

Rating ***